Rethinking light in modern building design

By Jesse Sanchez. 

Exploring how smart lighting and glass innovations can support both energy goals and human health. 

The push for greener, more energy-efficient buildings is opening the door to an important new conversation: how design choices impact human health. Joe Menchefski, host of the Better Buildings for Humans podcast and a corporate sales leader at Advanced Glazings, joined Heidi J. Ellsworth on this episode of MetalCast™ to spotlight emerging research that connects modern building practices with human biology, revealing new opportunities to create spaces that are both sustainable and supportive of well-being. 

“LED lights are so incredibly cost-effective, so energy effective, but they don't have red spectrum,” Joe said during the conversation. “We're finding all kinds of illnesses, even diabetes, that are possibly related to an absence of red in the light spectrum.” 

Joe has a background in chemical engineering and two decades at Advanced Glazings, with a perspective rooted in science and real-world applications. His concern centers on what he calls a seismic shift in human exposure to natural light, especially full-spectrum sunlight. He explained, “Humans have been living and spending much of our time out in the sunlight. And then suddenly in the last a hundred years, we spend more than 90% of our time inside of buildings.” 

A growing body of research supports his concerns. Among the biggest culprits? Low-emissivity (low-E) glass and artificial lighting. While these materials are praised for reducing energy use, they may also be filtering out parts of the light spectrum essential to human health. Joe highlighted one Harvard professor's insight into the matter. “There's a very specific portion. 480 nanometers of the visible light spectrum that without it, our internal clock gets all screwed up,” he shared.  

That disruption of circadian rhythms isn’t a minor inconvenience; it has ripple effects that touch everything from sleep to immune function. There’s even new research connecting myopia and other health issues to these same spectrums being blocked by widely used glass coatings. 

The conversation took a turn toward solutions too, including upcoming episodes featuring guests exploring red-spectrum lighting and a return to “sun lamps” once dismissed as outdated wellness tech. Joe teased a future guest who’s “founded a company to bring red sun lamps back as a health impact.” 

These are more than niche concerns for architects or engineers. They point to an evolving crisis in building design that may require a radical rethink of how we define “efficiency.” Joe urges listeners to challenge the singular focus on carbon and start considering the people inside the buildings. 

Read the transcript, Listen to the podcast or Watch the conversation to learn more from Joe on the science of daylight, the return of red-spectrum lighting and what’s next for human-focused building design!